Reader Mail: The Mayans Were Wrong, but Miami Is Still Doomed

Miami's alternate reality: The Mayans might have been wrong about Armageddon coming December 21, but as your look back at a year of apocalyptic insanity in Miami ("Apocalypse Not," Michael E. Miller, December 27) shows, Miami's struggle to exist in a universe of normal reality has failed each and every time. Run.randrand

What would Jesus say?: Miami, the so-called Magic City, is doomed because magic is an abomination to God. marcelino martinez

Free weeklies are the four horsemen: And to top it all off, Miami New Times in still in circulation. Poor Miami. Indeed, we are doomed. mexkompa1

We must have missed this one: The Maya were right, though. A meteor missed Earth earlier in December. If it would have hit, we would have gone through a lot of hell prior to extinction. Elliot C. Boose

Jihad Bros

Blame our violent culture: Sure, the idea that Xbox games sparked violent urges in Raees Qazi, the wannabe South Florida terrorist arrested with his brother Sheharyar ("Dunkin' Terrorist," Terrence McCoy, Dececember 27), might be ridiculous. But when you look at all the gun violence today, I do think the videogames that glorify violence are one of the root causes. If you spend hours on end engrossed in large-screen, interactive, violent games, it does have an effect. Combined with violent TV and movies and our general moral decay, the result is more violence. Gun control is not a bad thing, but we need to do something about our morals if we want to stop violence. JoeMamma

Assault Rifle Reckoning

Watch out for the suburbs: Uncle Luke can blame assault rifles for violence in black communities ("Call to Arms," Luther Campbell, December 27), but it's always been those low-down police who have been shooting more of our young black men than it has been young black men killing each other in Miami-Dade. Honestly, Luke, a drive-by shooting in the black community ain't got shit on a suburban community's shooting massacre of innocent 6- and 7-year-old children. What these idiots need to do is worry about those assault weapons in white suburban communities, where these types of shooting massacres always happen. Unlike Sandy Hook shooter Adam Lanza — or other suburban spree killers like Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold in Columbine or James Holmes in Aurora — blacks with assault weapons have never killed 20 children. harris12345

More counseling, less gun control: This column uses the same liberal buzzwords — assault rifles, predominantly black, poor, gun control — as all the other lefty articles making a senseless statement to stop crime. Violent crime in so-called poor, black hoods will happen whether guns are used or not. Most of the guns used in crimes are stolen anyway. So that kills your point of requiring drug and mental health checks before law-abiding citizens buy guns. People who commit violent crimes are going to be evil regardless. I lived in both Liberty City and Miami Gardens, and believe me, people who commit violent crimes will find other ways to hurt, kill, and pillage without using so-called assault rifles. What needs to be enacted are more anger-control measures. One way would be to solicit more men to become mentors — not just coaching football teams, which leaves out kids who aren't good at the sport, but helping kids with math, science, reading comprehension, and writing homework. Also, we need more abstinence counseling for young people. Underage sex leads to underage pregnancy. Miami-Dade police did a survey on people who commited violent crimes in these areas and found most felons come from single-mother households. glutenfreeallday

Fact checking: Luke, you need to check your facts. Let's start with your talk of "high-powered machine guns." Machine guns are not exactly common, cost thousands of dollars to obtain, and are heavily regulated. The media can't seem to distinguish between a semiautomatic firearm, a machine gun, and a revolver, but there is a difference. What weapon did that criminal use to gun down those little kids? He most likely used a semiautomatic AK variant, which was still available during the "assault weapons ban" under Bill Clinton. The ban was bullshit. For the most part, it banned certain firearms based on cosmetic features. So much for that curbing violence. Also, regarding those other horrible shootings you mentioned, how many of them were committed by criminals who shouldn't have had a firearm in the first place? And how many of them involved "assault" rifles? Harry the Handyman

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